Rating: 
Summary: A Great Haunting Novel
Review: After I finished this book, I realized just how inventive and unique it really was. The hero Kevin is haunted by his 'shadow' who literally embodies all the bad sides of his character and past. Through solidly constructed chapters (especially a few right in the middle of this book, which are downright brilliant), Kevin both looks back at his past and confronts his shadow again after years.At points the novel has very obviously been stitched together from many separate short works (as author admits in the preface), but once you get into the storyline and the reality as weaved together by the author, you'll let yourself go on a spook tour of Kevin's psyche. Inventive, clever, unique, vivid, pervasive. Someone recently said to me, 'I like books in which as a reader I'm not 100% sure of what's going on.' Me too.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Haunting Novel
Review: After I finished this book, I realized just how inventive and unique it really was. The hero Kevin is haunted by his 'shadow' who literally embodies all the bad sides of his character and past. Through solidly constructed chapters (especially a few right in the middle of this book, which are downright brilliant), Kevin both looks back at his past and confronts his shadow again after years. At points the novel has very obviously been stitched together from many separate short works (as author admits in the preface), but once you get into the storyline and the reality as weaved together by the author, you'll let yourself go on a spook tour of Kevin's psyche. Inventive, clever, unique, vivid, pervasive. Someone recently said to me, 'I like books in which as a reader I'm not 100% sure of what's going on.' Me too.
Rating: 
Summary: Yakkity yak...
Review: Blah blah blah Irish Catholic blah blabitty YMCA blah blah doppelganger blah blah blah carousel blah blah old toys BLAH. Don't waste your time. Richard Bowes, I want my three weeks back.
Rating:
Summary: Yakkity yak...
Review: Blah blah blah Irish Catholic blah blabitty YMCA blah blah doppelganger blah blah blah carousel blah blah old toys BLAH. Don't waste your time. Richard Bowes, I want my three weeks back.
Rating: 
Summary: A (Con?)Fusion of Genres
Review: Embedded in _Minions of the Moon_ is a suberb ghost story, but around that fun, spooky story swirls a lot of rather disjointed narrative about addiction. The coolest part of this book was the whole doppelganger motif: Kevin has a double and it is not a mere figment of his imagination. Like his mother before him, he has a doppelganger that often carries on a life apart from him. At first the eerie poem incantations from his old Irish aunt is his only apotropiac. Later in the book some mysterious characters called "sojourners" appear that never quite get explained, but are spookier for their vagueness. The best part of this idea was that it was only together that Kevin and the double form a "whole human being." The narrative then sets off in the direction of their union (one thinks). If this were all the story, I would have liked it much better. But to this, the author tries to add less supernatural dimensions to the doppelganger theme with a alcohol and drug addiction subplot. And, admittedly, a writer would have to delve far and deeply into the psychology of addiction to write anything eye-popping on that topic after David Foster Wallace's phenomenal _Infinite Jest_. But Mr. Bowes is a good writer. I just thought there were two or three distinct books here, much more disjointed than Kevin person and Fred the doppelganger.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful, horrible, magnificent
Review: I couldn't put this book down. Bowes is one of the best writers I've encountered in years. He gives us a tour, vividly evoked, of some of the more hideous realities of our time, but solidly in there with the horrors are courage, compassion and redemption. Bowes is a writer's writer. His evocation of a miserable Boston childhood and a horrific coming-of-age in Hell's Kitchen couldn't be more truthful, and nevertheless exhilarate. Through this world angels also walk, and strange illuminations. His hero survives, endures, and keeps the faith against tremendous odds. You won't find sleek and phony gothic figures in Minions of the Moon; there isn't a lie or a word of self-indulgence or hackwork in it. You will find demons in plenty, acute human pain, joy and hope. This book is good for the soul.
Rating:
Summary: A frightening and beautiful book; I'm glad I found it.
Review: I had never heard of Richard Bowes when I found this book at the library. I don't care for SF and I'm not gay, so I almost put it back in the New Books bin, but for some reason I borrowed it instead. What a remarkable book! I would recommend this to anyone, no matter what their taste in fiction, and I'll be looking for more of Richard Bowes's work. In fact, I decided to review it after coming to Amazon to see what other books this might be linked to ... Every once in awhile you find a book that will stay with you. A keeper. This is one.
Rating: 
Summary: Intriguing, yet haphazard
Review: I think Bowes's story is incredible, but it was diluted by the structure of too many flashbacks and flashforwards. The story of a boy growing up with a shadow is not entirely new, and Bowes breathed new life in this by adding the queer element and in his refreshing settings. I found it rather confusing and couldn't always figure out when the events occurred: past, present, recent..?
Rating:
Summary: Dark and believable fantasy
Review: If much fantasy consists of real toads in imaginary gardens, then _Minions of the Moon_ is precisely the other way around. In most respects it's a book about a character struggling to overcome his own dark side-- the fantasy element is that the dark side really exists. The tip o' the hat to Mr. Hyde in the Shadow is well done and the novel itself contains the necessary amount of grit. Why not five stars? Too disjointed. It doesn't hold well enough together as a novel to make it really memorable. Good read all the same.
Rating:
Summary: Felix Krull redux
Review: If much fantasy consists of real toads in imaginary gardens, then _Minions of the Moon_ is precisely the other way around. In most respects it?s a book about a character struggling to overcome his own dark side-- the fantasy element is that the dark side really exists. The tip o? the hat to Mr. Hyde in the Shadow is well done and the novel itself contains the necessary amount of grit. Why not five stars? Too disjointed. It doesn?t hold well enough together as a novel to make it really memorable. Good read all the same.
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